The process of unloading dry bulk cargo from containers and foldable flexible shipping container liner-bags used in containers has been to have equipment that will tilt the container while fully loaded with bulk cargo to an angle, such as 45 degrees, for causing the bulk cargo to flow out of the container or container liner-bags used in containers for unloading the bulk cargo. The equipment used to tilt the container and liner-bags used in containers varies in complexity and cost depending on the length of the container. The longer containers, such as 40 or 45-foot length containers, being most expensive and difficult to unload and the shorter containers, such as 20 or 30-foot length containers, being less expensive and easier to unload, but even with the tilting equipment, problems of discharging the bulk cargo can occur. Further, the unloading of bulk cargo by tilting the container to pour the bulk cargo out requires special handling to keep the poured bulk cargo contained and in condition to be transported, stored or separated to be used. Also, not every shipping destination has tilting equipment for any and every container size or length because of the volumes of shipping required to justify the costs of tilting equipment and its frequency of use may make the tilting equipment cost prohibitive at some shipping destinations because of lower volumes. As a result, these 40 and 45-foot bulk loaded shipping containers must be sent to specialized third party logistics 3PL's suppliers which have specialized equipment to remove the loaded container from its chassis and load it to a stationary tilting platform for the unloading of its contents to any other transportation or storage means for subsequent moves to the end destination. This extra handling and logistics adds costs, time and bottlenecks the supply chain of commodities being transported in bulk. Most importantly, the additional handling costs associated with the lack of appropriate tilting equipment for these large size containers washes-off the economics of shipping commodities in bulk form using containers and container liners. Additionally, due to the large size and lateral surface area of these larger containers, side winds make tilting chassis unsafe to operate as they may become unstable, thus requiring the use of stationary tilting platforms fixed at ground level to secure stability during the tilting phase. A stationary platform then requires the use of specialized equipment called container stackers capable of removing the loaded container from its transport chassis and loading it to the stationary platform for the unloading. These units are quite expensive and thus are only available at specialized logistic terminals.
To find other processes than tilting the container and the container liner-bags used in the unloading process of dry bulk cargo, the shipping industry has attempted to use other technologies such as laying a floor liner in a container and then loading the bulk cargo on top. Once shipped, they then tried to unload the bulk cargo by pulling the floor liner out of the container. This approach got varying and uneven results of unloading the bulk cargo from the container liners in the container. In many cases using these processes of pulling the floor liner out of the container much of the bulk cargo was left behind and in stacks caused by bridging of the bulk cargo and piling up. The incomplete results required manual laborers to go into the container liners with shovels to remove the remaining bulk cargo left behind. Also, in some applications of using the process of pulling out the liner the liners would get trapped between the bulk cargo and the container liner floor and cause the floor liners to snap or break causing the process to be stopped completely with only a part of the bulk cargo discharged from the container.
As ways around these problems of incomplete unloading of bulk cargo by pulling a floor liner out of a container liner in a container, the prior art attempted to use folded pleats only one-layer deep. The pleats ran or faced either all toward the front of a container or ran or faced all toward the back of a container, but the results were still not successful in unloading all the containers completely or all the different types of bulk cargo. The prior art had many of the same problems with breaks in the floor liners and bridging of the bulk cargo product in the container liner or at the back of the container at the bulk head creating additional problems in the unloading of the bulk cargo from the containers. So, the discharging of bulk cargo by the use of pulling a floor liner out of a container or container liner has remained economically problematic and spotty in its use.